Lecture Notes

Overview of Robert Crumb

• Underground cartoonist
• Known for representations of bird-headed women
• Documentary titled Crumb
  • Highly recommended
  • Best documentary lecture speaker has ever seen
  • Study in loser psychology

Crumb's Background

• Self-admitted loser in high school
  • Intelligent and creative
  • Two brothers, more intelligent and creative but also more psychopathological
• Successful in underground cartooning (1960s)
  • Major player in graphic novels
• Documentary analyzes relationship between failure and success
  • Case study in sexual failure and success

Bird-Headed Women Drawings

• Depict powerful, aggressive women
  • Big thighs, big rear ends, physically intimidating
  • Reflect Crumb’s rejection by women
• Once successful, attitude from women changed
  • Resentment and bitterness in Crumb’s voice e.g., rejection transformed to acceptance

Crumb's Family Background

• Authoritarian father
• Indulgent mother
  • Mother significant in documentary

Insights and Psychological Themes

• Freudian Psychopathology
  • Deep and intense
  • Only thorough examination of 'down-and-out male loser' perspective
• Crumb's brothers
  • One a sexual offender living on streets
  • Other committed suicide at 55, bullied, lived in mother's basement
• Lack of compassion for unsuccessful men

Implications for Young Men

• Self-improvement recommendations
  • Educational attainment
  • Securing employment
  • Moving out of parents’ house
• Criticisms faced by the speaker
  • Accusations of promoting stereotypes
  • Responsible marriage cautions

Choosing the Right Partner

• Criteria for a woman:
  • Generosity (e.g., willingness to share payment or cook)
  • Kindness to socially inferior individuals (e.g., waiters)
  • Ability to self-reflect on past relationships
• Studies on sexual attractiveness
  • Association with physical health and fertility
• Down-the-hierarchy treatment as a marker of character

Example from Nature

• Buck Elks
  • Females prefer males with the largest racks
  • Large racks deplete minerals and nutrients
  • Symbolism of male strength and weakness

Social Commentary

• Japanese Millennials’ game Koshisatsu (Death at the Desk)
  • Criticism of overwork culture
  • Emphasis on human beings versus human doings

Lecture Takeaway

• Finding balance for future generations
  • Mixed roles: doing what you love vs. earning enough
  • Attracting the right kind of partner through emotional intelligence
  • Importance of self-actualization and human-being over merely achievements